If the University of Washington is to have any chance at making the NCAA Tournament, outside of winning the Pac-12 Tournament, the Huskies need a victory over a quality opponent. They have yet to record one of those, but get another chance Saturday.

Washington has not won in Tucson since March 4, 2006, 70-67, when Brandon Roy captained the Huskies. The Wildcats are 10-2 at home after blowing away Washington State 85-61 Thursday.

Having won four of its past six contests, Arizona features three double-figure scorers in senior guard Kyle Fogg (12.2), 6-6 junior forward Solomon Hill (11.9) and 6-7 senior forward Jesse Perry (11.5), and the Pac-12’s best collection of 3-point shooters. The Wildcats make 7.81 3-pointers per game, the top mark in the conference.

Washington has won consecutive road games (at Utah on Jan. 7) after starting the season 0-5.

“It’s been a maturation process,” coach Lorenzo Romar said. “I think we are getting it. We are entering the second half of conference (play). This is about the time you have to get things going.”

SERIES: Dates to Dec. 29, 1964, when Arizona defeated Washington 77-63 in the second round of the Los Angeles Classic. Washington has won four of the past six against Arizona, including a 77-75 overtime decision in the 2011 Pac-10 Tournament in a game won by Isaiah Thomas’s last-second shot. Romar is 11-10 all time against the Wildcats.

LAST GAME (Washington, Jan. 26): Washington rode Tony Wroten’s 22 points to win its second road game this season, 60-54, in Tempe. The Huskies, a poor free throw shooting team, hit 12 of their final 15 shots from the line to hold off the Sun Devils, who hung in despite the absence of Trent Lockett, their best player who missed his third consecutive game with an ankle injury. The win pushed the Huskies into a tie for the Pac-12 lead. C.J. Wilcoxreturned after a three-game absence and hit four key free throws late, his only points in 10 minutes.

LAST GAME (Arizona, Jan. 26): Fogg scored 20 points and Hill 17, leading a flurry of Arizona 3-pointers that buried Washington State 85-61. Fogg, 4 of 6 on 3s, scored 18 in the first half as the Wildcats (14-7, 5-3) built a 42-27 lead. Hill, who made of 3 of 4 3-pointers, scored 15 in the second half. Brendon Lavender added 14, including 4 of 5 3s. Overall, Arizona made 15 of 26 from behind the line. WSU’s Faisal Aden, the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week left the game with what appeared to be a serious left knee injury with 4:02 left in the first half.

UW STATS/NOTES: Washington averages 77.1 ppg (2nd, Pac-12), and yields 71.4 (11th, Pac-12) . . . Washington ranks sixth in the conference in field goal percentage (45.4 percent) and 11th in free throw shooting (61.7) . . . Washington, which led the Pac-12 in 3-point shooting earlier in the season, has slipped to ninth at 36.1 percent . . . UW continues to lead the Pac-12 in rebounding at 40.3 rpg . . . With 22 points against Arizona State,Tony Wroten boosted his scoring average to 17.1, No. 2 in the Pac-12 behind Oregon State’s Jared Cunningham (17.8) . . . Aziz N’Diaye is tied for second in conference rebounding at 8.1 per game . . . Abdul Gaddyranks fourth in the Pac-12 in assists at 4.6 apg . . . C.J. Wilcox, who played 10 minutes against Arizona State after missing three games with a stress fracture, continues to lead the conference in free throw shooting, making 90.9 percent of his attempts . . . Austin Seferian-Jenkins scored his first points for UW against Arizona, making 2 of 5 shots for four points . . . Wroten’s thunderous second-half dunk over ASU’s Jonathan Gilling was ranked the No. 1 play of the day on ESPN’s nightly SportsCenter rankings.

ARIZONA STATS/NOTES: The Wildcats average 70.0 ppg (T6 in the Pac-12) and yield just 61.9 (4th, Pac-12) . . . Arizona is the fourth-best free throw shooting team in the conference (70.1 percent), but the third-worst field goal shooting club (44.4 percent) . . . The Wildcats are the league’s second-best 3-point shooting team, making 38.1 percent, and the best in the league at preventing 3-pointers, yielding just 26.5 percent . . . Arizona makes 7.81 3-pointers per game, top mark in the conference . . . Arizona does not have scorer ranked among the conference’s top 10, and just one ranked in the top 20 (Kyle Fogg, 20th, 12.2 ppg) . . . Arizona is 10-2 at McHale Center.

COACHES: Romar is in his 10th season as Washingtons head coach. Romar has taken the Huskies to the NCAA Tournament six times, and has won three Pac-10 Tournament titles (2005, 2010, 2011). Romar, who signed a 10-year contract extension in April of 2011, won his his 200th game at Washington Dec. 16, 2011, when the Huskies defeated UC Santa Barbara. He both his 300th career victory and his 100th as a conference coach when the Huskies 76-63 Jan. 21.

Sean Miller:Miller is in his third year. In 2010-11, he led UA to a 30-7 record, a Pac-10 regular-season championship and an NCAA West Regional final berth. A University of Pittsburgh graduate, Miller began his college head coaching career at Xavier, where he produced four 20-win teams in five years, leading each of those teams to the NCAA Tournament.

Art Thiel

ART THIEL’S TAKE: Wroten’s thunderdunk was the talk of the post-game for how it ignited the Huskies and flattened the Sun Devils. But the fact that Washington held ASU to 37 percent shooting, and made free throws down the stretch, were the bigger long-term developments in UW’s progress.

Arizona is an entirely different story, especially at home. They no longer have Derrick Williams, but the Wildcats are formidable from the outside, as Washington State can attest. Hill and Fogg may be the best forward tandem in the Pac-12. These are two teams on an uptick, but only one is at home, and the overwrought Miller’s sideline antics are a show in themselves. Arizona 80, Washington 77.

Steve Rudman

STEVE RUDMAN’S TAKE: The thing that stands out about Arizona is how well it shoots the 3-point shot — against WSU Thursday, the Wildcats were 15 of 26 — and how well they defend against it: Arizona leads the conference in thwarting the three (26.5 percent).

Washington doesn’t defend the three (or anything else) very well, ranking eighth in the conference. So unless the Huskies stiffen up Saturday, they could get run out of McHale Center. Arizona 75, Washington 68.

COMING UP: Washington returns to Alaska Airlines Arena to play the Los Angeles schools, UCLA on Feb. 2 and USC on Feb. 4.

YourThoughts

zippy0

NOOOOO- the only reason SF won 13 games was an amazing defense- Alex Smith did not lead anything — he did a trent dilfer impersonation- Willis lead the team (like Lewis did for Ravens) in rare defensive lead team– NO ALEX SMITH

drshort

Isn’t Smith an unrestricted free agent? If Seattle wanted him, why not just go after him regardless of what Manning does. I happen to think he’s a big upgrade over TJ

Jamo57

His resume is so much thicker than Krieg’s:

7th round pick over a free agent. (A gutsy move by the Hawks no doubt, not as gutsy as the 6th round Hasselbeck though)

LSU vs. Milton College (However it is an enticing thought to ponder the possibililty of LSU folding up shop like Milton did).

On the serious side, the LSU experience and perhaps even the Packer experience might help him manage the expectations side of the biz.

Dusty827

Flynn has started only 2 games, but has played in 34 in the time he’s been with the Packers. So he has tons more NFL experience to what Matt Hasselbeck had when he came to the Hawks under Holmgren. In fact, Hasselbeck had no starts and only exhibition game experience at GB. As long as Flynn is just steady and not a liability, I’ll be very happy. This team is a run first offense, sprinkled with the passing game, not the other way around, and the QB doesn’t have to be the star. Great deal Seattle!

Artthiel

Flynn in his first year will be able to manage the game, and not necessarily have to win it. Except for th SF games, which Pete wants bad.

Old Dog

I’m in for Flynn. When comparing Krieg and Hasselbeck keep in mind the brutal division the AFC West was during Krieg and Chuck Knox’s tenure vs the NFC West (light). If we have a scrapper like Krieg was – it will be outstanding!

Artthiel

Old dog, good reminder about the AFC West. Flynn has some Mudbone in him.

jafabian

It’s Hasselbeck all over again. Flynn will be given the chance to start but most likely he’ll split time with Jackson and be expected to simply learn the offense. Hard luck for Jackson as that towards the end of the season things started to click but the first half of the season he looked like he was forcing things and the last game of the season didn’t look too good for him either. We’ve seen from the fact that Jim Mora was canned after only one season as well as GM Rich Cho with the Blazers that Paul Allen has limited patience nowadays.

Artthiel

The point about Allen is well taken, jafabian. No green bananas for this dude.

RadioGuy

I think a key factor here is that of the $26 million, “only” $10 million is guaranteed. Still a fair amount of money, but when we consider how much was spent so Charlie Whitehurst could spend a couple years holding a clipboard before hightailing it back to San Diego, it’s not as bad as it could’ve been. Flynn may end up collecting all $26 million, but he’ll have to earn it.

All in all, I like this deal. I’d like to see some of Flynn lining up under center with THIS team (as opposed to a high-octane offense like the Packers) before anointing him the starter in Seattle. Tarvaris Jackson is not the long-term answer here and some of his decisions were, uhhhh, “questionable” at times, but Flynn should have to prove he’s better before he starts. Let’s see how the kid competes.

You know, “the same guys who brought Seattle Charlie Whitehurst ” are ALSO the same guys who brought us Marshawn Lynch, Brandon Browner, Richard Sherman, Russell Okung, Earl Thomas….

someknucklehead

Noted, but evaluating a QB vs a DB or RB is like evaluating a wine vs evaluating a cigar. Not the same thing….

Dennis Shimmel

Flynn has shown ( in limited appearances) that he can read a defense and the whole field. That by it self is a huge upgrade. Now if we can only get another WR or two and HOPE our O-line can remain healthy and continue to grow this team is definitely headed in the right direction.

1coolguy

Here’s to hoping either QB will operate behind a MUCH improved OL.
If the OL performs well, it will be a very good season.

Belovedson

the gamble we took on flynn is the right way of approaching free agents. he has a high ceiling _ matt and costs a little more than backup money. It opens the door to more possibility in the draft. in so many categories we win. reaching for a qb will set us back, most likely. if flynn is a slightly better qb, and we had him last year = maybe, playoff?

so many fans expect a team to somehow read the future and pick the right franchise qb and that simply does not happen. having a game plan, being smart, and methodical, without panic often results in wins. wins provides a better chance at the super bowl.

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